Thursday, November 29, 2012

I normally wait for a print copy to arrive before reading comic books, but I've been really wanting to check out the highly anticipated My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic book that came out yesterday. Because of shipping delays (the holiday sales were very overwhelming, let's just say), I decided to buy a digital copy through Comixology for me to hold by until the print copy finally gets here.

I'm glad I did, because the comic was worth the wait. All Ages comic books are rare these days due to the market shifting to adults (and let's be frank, this comic was licensed because "Pony" has enough adult following to justify making this), so I can imagine everyone being surprised that this sold more than 100,000 copies. The sales were so high that it's now in THIRD printing.

The story is this: The Cutie Mark Crusaders (Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo) are kidnapped by the Changlings, so the Mane Six must go find them. And with that the four-issue arc begins, with Part 2 coming out in December.

Everything is faithful to the show. The characters are well presented, the dialogues are deliciously self-aware (maybe too much so), and the faces. Dear god, the faces. The show always made use with facial expressions but the comic, due to being hand-drawn, takes this to the next level. Not a panel goes by without the characters doing a new face. Andy Price, the artist, went all the way when drawing the comics.

While child-friendly, the tone is dark at times. The entire story is a send-up to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, so there are plenty of creepy moments in the comic. At the same time, however, it's very heavy on gags. In seemingly every panel there are either funny events going on in the background or the characters are making wry comments.

My only complaint is that the whole thing breezed so fast, but that's to be expected for a regular comic book, I presume. With three more issues coming out, it might be different when reading the entire story together in one setting.

In addition to the main story there's a bonus two-page gag starring Pinkie Pie and Rarity. In it, Rarity is designing a dress for an important client and asks Pinkie to hold still while she goes to the other room to find some gems. Of course, Pinkie being Pinkie, she fails at the simple task. Nothing special, but it's a nice breather from the main story. Writer Katie Cook drew this one herself, and the art is more simplistic compared to the main story, but it's still pleasant to look at. I'm open to seeing more one-shot gags done by her in the future issues.

So yeah, the comic is very well done. All I can do is to wait for the print copy to arrive so I can truly experience this.